When working out, one conventional exercise is a pushup. Traditionally, pushups are performed in the prone position, with or without grips, blocks or supports. Most people remember push-ups from their gym class in secondary school. Push-ups are a basic exercise in military physical training (“PT”), and are widely used by private athletic trainers and physical educators.
Primarily, push-ups develop the pectoral muscles, biceps, and triceps; and secondarily, deltoids, rhomboids, trapezius, and latissimus dorsi. Additionally, push-ups allow for the free mobility of the scapulae. When done correctly, with one's shoulder blades separating and protracting at the top, the push-up is one of the best activators of the serratus anterior muscles. Push-ups also develop the core, under certain exercise circumstances. Last, push-ups are an indispensable exercise because they can be performed in bulk, anywhere. Repetition builds muscle bulk, or muscle hypertrophy. No other exercise is as accessible as the push-up while working such a variety of upper body muscle groups.
Although pushups may be an effective upper body exercise, there are many reasons that people are inhibited from doing push-ups. As a person fatigues, pushups become more difficult. When a person is injured, older, or out-of-shape, even a few push-ups may be difficult, or even painful. For many people, push-ups cause joint pain in the hands and wrists.
Although various devices for push-ups are defined in the prior art, such grips, blocks, and handles typically only provide stability and frictional engagement with the ground. Such grips, block, and handles reduce wrist and hand pain experienced by some users, but they do not provide any additional benefit over a regular prone push-up. The art discloses a variety of grips, blocks, and handles for facilitating push-ups in a full prone position. The art also discloses hybrid push-up devices that have some physical feature for forcing the user to engage core stability. Such hybrid devices often have rounded, triangular, or soft, inflatable bottoms, which facilitate core engagement by the user.
The market does disclose some general prior art attempting to act as an incline push-up stabilizer, but most of those devices have one or more flaws. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,897, by named inventor Agan (“Agan '897”), discloses a push-up stabilizer that has a thin, flat top region and two planes that engage a step or table edge. The two planes are very thin and not well-suited for their intended purpose. Apparently, in order to maximize the angle of incline, Agan '897 erred on the side of making the two planes so flat that they flex. Additionally, the thin, flat top region of the handle makes Agan '897 unstable. The two biggest requirements for an incline push-up stabilizer are that the handles create a stable base for the user, and the engagement planes do not flex. A flexing engagement plane will cause the engagement plane to lose contact and slide.
What the market needs is a push-up device that facilitates push-ups by stabilizing the user, reducing stress on the wrist and hands, and allowing the user to exercise at less than a full-prone position. By angling the users body with respect to the ground, the effective weight of the push-up experienced by the user is reduced. The effective angle of the user is 0° when doing a full prone push-up, which means that the push-up is being performed at the “standard” weight experienced by the user. The maximum effective angle for a user performing a positive inclined (head raised above feet) push-up is somewhere around 75°, meaning that, by selecting an appropriate angle, a user could perform push-ups with anywhere from approximately 0.25 times their “standard” weight (cos 75°≅0.25) to their full “standard” weight, by selecting the appropriate positive incline for a push-up. The market is looking for a simple device that will allow all users to perform bulk push-ups. As a result, it is desirable to implement a workout handle that may be used to provide a variable inclined push-up position when connected to a stair or shelf.